Earlier this year, Dave ‘The King of Clubs’ Beer (founder of Back To Basics – the UK’s longest running club night) was an inpatient on Ward J47 – an Abdominal Medicine & Surgery ward at St James’s Hospital in Leeds.
A recent convert to Buddhism, Dave was keen to continue his meditation practice whilst in hospital. He asked Buddhist monk Gen Dornying, from Kadampa Meditation Centre Leeds, to visit and meditate with him during his stay.
Throughout this time, the two of them noticed how hard the ward team was working and Dornying thought he might be able to help take off some of the pressure. He offered to put on a free group meditation session just for staff.
“It really helped me take a step back and reflect on why I do the work I do. It reminded me of the deeper purpose behind my role and gave me a renewed sense of confidence that I am doing a good job” – Ward J47 staff member
Kirstie Sutton, Ward Sister, said: “The clinical team on Ward J47 work incredible hard to deliver compassionate patient care – but the pressured nature of the job means stress levels are high. Dornying’s offer was incredibly thoughtful and came from a real desire to help. Colleagues were so appreciative of the opportunity and immediately felt the benefits.”
In fact, colleagues found the meditation session so helpful, that Kirstie along with David Goulding – who was HR Business Partner for the service at the time –set up a weekly meditation session for the team led by Dornying, who kindly gave of his time for free.
These weekly sessions provided a short 10-minute meditation break, designed to allow clinical staff to step away from the ward with enough time to get back without impacting patient care.
One staff member said: “It really helped me take a step back and reflect on why I do the work I do. It reminded me of the deeper purpose behind my role and gave me a renewed sense of confidence that I am doing a good job — something that’s easy to lose sight of in our environment.”
The sessions were immediately popular, with anywhere between five and 15 colleagues attending.
“It leaves me feeling relaxed and energised to continue with the rest of my working day. I feel like it is accessible to everybody, even those with no prior meditation experience” – Ward J47 staff member
Kirstie said: “We started in my office on the ward, but the popularity of the sessions meant we had to quickly find a larger space to accommodate all the interest from colleagues. It is so important for us to ensure we are supporting the health and wellbeing of our team – but it was clear this had much broader appeal.”
David Goulding began looking for larger venues and, as word spread, opened up the free sessions to the whole of the Abdominal Medicine & Surgery service at the hospital. These longer sessions lasted around 20 minutes and often saw 20-30 colleagues join each time.
On the benefits of these sessions, another colleague said: “The weekly meditation sessions are a highlight of my working week. It is so refreshing to be able to spend 15-30 minutes off the busy ward environment to focus on meditation. It leaves me feeling relaxed and energised to continue with the rest of my working day. I feel like it is accessible to everybody, even those with no prior meditation experience.”
Gen Dornying has since had to relocate to a different part of the country, but Kadampa Meditation Centre in Leeds has helped continue the meditation sessions over the past few months, expanding the offer to all Trust staff who are interested across two hospital sites.
Since September sessions have been led by new teacher, Gen Cho, running most Wednesdays at both St James’s Hospital and LGI, with two half-hour sessions put on over lunch time, one after the other, allowing more staff to join.
There are plans to expand even further in the near year to run a ‘Meditation Morning’ with sessions starting every 30 minutes to allow staff to join when they are able to.
David Goulding – now Radiology Service Manager at the Trust – said: “Despite being initially sceptical about meditation and whether it was right for me, I have now taken part in a number of sessions and find them really beneficial. Meditation at the start, middle or end of your day has a calming but focused effect. I encourage all colleagues to give it a try. I really want to express my deep thanks and gratitude to Gen Dornying, Gen Cho, and Kadampa Meditation Centre for all their kindness and support – it has meant so much to our staff, and I look forward to helping expand this offer in the coming months so even more colleagues can benefit.”
